Corporate Actions In Orion

Overview

Orion helps audit and process all mandatory corporate actions to ensure that transactions and prices are set correctly. Orion does not help with processing voluntary corporate actions, but our Cost Basis Corporate Actions team can help you set them up at the transaction level. The SME Data Recon team also reconciles both voluntary and mandatory corporate action transactions received from custodians.



Mandatory Corporate Actions

Mandatory corporate actions include the following:


  • Mergers/Exchanges/Conversions
  • Spin Offs
  • Stock Splits/Stock Dividends/Stock Distributions
  • Reverse Splits

Orion receives information for mandatory corporate actions through Interactive Data Corporation. 

 

Processing Mandatory Actions

Processing a corporate action can take up to 45 business days after the effective date of the corporate action, however, it's usually completed in a much shorter amount of time. Please reach out to the Cost Basis Corporate Actions Team to determine how long the processing time will be or if you see any performance issues caused by a corporate action.


Some factors that delay processing:

  • Transaction delays from the custodians
  • Missing or delayed corporate action details
  • Complexity and scope of the corporate action

 

Name/CUSIP Changes

Name/CUSIP changes are an exception in terms of processing times and are processed at the end of the business day before the effective date of the corporate action. This ensures that prices, transactions, and positions download correctly to the products the next business day when the new Name/CUSIP starts is used. 

 

Moving Cost Basis

Orion moves the cost basis for you once the corporate action is processed. Moving cost basis can also take up to 45 business days depending on when the IRS form 8937 is published and made public by the parent company. 


Market Open Corporate Actions

Orion handles market open (i.e. same day or beginning of day) corporate actions differently because these impact the unit balances that occur before the stock market opens on the effective date of the action.


If the security is held in one of your client's accounts, Orion will temporarily add activity to the position based on the communicated rate and the position's most up-to-date value as a result of the calculated event. This temporary activity is added before the market opening on the day of the action. The added activity will be removed after the market closes on the day of the action, and your custodian’s data will replace it on the next business day.


To learn more about this process, review Overview: Market Open Corporate Action Process.

 

Set Up Notifications for Market Open Actions

Navigate to the Query app 

  • Find Query ID 18239, Corporate Actions by Effective Date. 
  • Right-click on the query and select Schedule Data Query.
  • Choose the Frequency at which you'd like to receive notifications.
    • It is best practice to select "Daily", with a "Start Time" of Market Open (8:30 AM CST).
    • Effective Date = Now
  • Select a file format
  • Click Schedule. 

Please Note: Ensure your firm reviews all trades involving accounts holding this security. If questions arise regarding the trading implications of this event, please reach out to our Trading team.



Reviewing Notification Results

  • When the scheduled data query runs, it's delivered through the Notification Menu at the top of your Orion Connect screen based on the defined frequency.
  • Navigate to the Notifications app and download the data query results by going to the Actions dropdown > Download.

Determine Which Products Have a Market Open Action

  • Open the downloaded query results in Excel and filter the Is Beginning of Day column for only True results.

Determine Which Accounts are Affected

  • Copy the Product ID (column C) in the query results. 
  • Open the Products and Prices app and select Search Local Products on the left side of the screen.
  • On the right side of the screen, paste the Product ID into the ID field, select Owned As Of, and enter the Effective Date from your query (most likely today's date). Select Refresh Grid.
  • Right-click the product that displays, and then select Assets. This brings you to the Portfolio Audit app.
  • Click the Gear tab in the upper right corner and set the As Of Date to the Effective Date from your query (most likely today's date). Select Refresh Grid.
  • The corporate action will affect any account in this list that holds any shares "As Of" this date.